In Baseball as in Life

I imagine being an Astros fan is not that different from being an old-style, Goldwater-type Republican. One day, you wake up and realize that you don't recognize the team you've spent your life rooting fo. In the case of the Astros, it's not so much that they've played poorly but that the new owner has already cut a deal to send my beloved team to the—ugh, yuck—American League in 2014. (I was raised to believe the designated hitter would be this country's undoing.) Now, adding insult to injury, there's talk of changing the team's name. It's enough to make you doubt the sustaining qualities of baseball.